Sounds of Korean

• There is liaison in Korean.

• There is pitch accent in Korean, except in Standard Korean and Seoul Dialect. There, it changed into a pitch register system. The accent is represented with a high register on the first syllable of a phonetic word in these major dialects. Now, the high register is determined by the first letter of a phonetic word and is accompanied by opening up the lower jaw more for vowels.

Prosody

안녕하세요. Annyengxaséyo.	안녕하세요? Annyengxaséyo?
/꜕ɐn.ꜛnʲʌ̞̹.↘ŋʱä.sʰe̞.jo˧/ (Seoul Dialect) or /꜕ɐn.ꜛnʲʌ̞̹.↘ŋʱä.sʰe̞.jo˩/ (KR’s standard)	/꜕ɐn.ꜛnʲʌ̞̹.↘ŋʱä.sʰe̞.ꜛjo˥/

치킨. 그래. Cikin. Qulé.	치킨? 그래? Cikin? Qulé?
/ꜛ꜓t͡ɕʰɪ̝.kʰɪ̝n˩ ꜕kʰɯ̽.ɾe̞˧/ (Seoul Dialect) or /ꜛ꜓t͡ɕʰɪ̝.kʰɪ̝n˩ ꜕kʰɯ̽.ɾe̞˩/	/ꜛ꜓t͡ɕʰɪ̝.ꜛkʰɪ̝n˥ ꜕kʰɯ̽.ꜛɾe̞˥/ (Seoul Dialect) or /ꜛ꜓t͡ɕʰɪ̝.ꜛkʰɪ̝n˥ ꜕kʰɯ̽.ꜛɾe̞˥/ (KR’s standard)

1. Statements always end with a low pitch syllable and questions always end with a high pitch syallable (about 7 semitones higher; interval from do to sol). If a sentence is a syllable, the pitch of the monosyllable goes upward or downward if the pitch of the initial of the monosyllable (e.g. ka - low pitch) does not match the sentence type (e.g. question - high pitch).

2. The first syllable of a word has a pitch depending on the first letter. The second syllable has a high pitch (about 4-5 semitones higher; interval from do to mi or fa). The pitch of the following syllables generally go down every syllable unless the word ends with a connecting morpheme, where the last syllable has a high pitch.

There are more rules.

Phonological rules

There are too many rules. You should always ask Koreans how to write in hangul as well as how to write in hangul as pronounced to learn this by practicing.

Sounds with regard to morphophonemes

I recommend finding a quiet place where you can practice pronuncations without getting heard by people you don’t want to disturb.

ㅏ	ㅑ	ㅘ
a	ya	wa
/ä/ ← /ɐ/	/jㅏ/ ⇦ /ʲㅏ/	/wㅏ/ ⇦ /ʷㅏ/
ㅓ	ㅕ	ㅝ
e	ye	we
/ʌ̞̹/ ← /ʌ̹/	/jㅓ/ ⇦ /ʲㅓ/	/wㅓ/ ⇦ /ʷㅓ/
∅	ㅛ	ㅗ
o	yo	wo
∅	/jㅗ/ ⇦ /ʲㅗ/	/o̞/ ← /o/
ㅡ	ㅠ	ㅜ
u	yu	wu
/ɯ̽/	/jㅜ/ ⇦ /ʲㅜ/	/u/
ㅐ, ㅔ	ㅒ, ㅖ	ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅞ
é(eh)	yé(yeh)	wé(weh)
/ɛ/ ← /e/	/jㅔ/ ⇦ /ʲㅔ/	/wㅔ/ ⇦ /ʷㅔ/
ㅣ	ㅢ	ㅟ
i	yi	wi
/ɪ̝/ ← /i/	/ɪ̝̯ㅣ/ ⇦ /ʲㅣ/	/wㅣ/ ⇦ /ʷㅣ/

Note

• A ← B : B is made full as A if high register, where it is represented by opening up the mouth a little more. i.e. A reduces to B.

• A ⇦ B: B is hardened as A if no preceding consonant. I.e., combine glide with preceding consonant so that syllables always sound short. i.e. A palatizes as B.

There’s also the ㆊ /üe/ sound. Ask some Korean how they would pronounce the word for “jump” ᄄᆑ!

ㅁ	m	ㅂ	b		ㅂ/w	v	ㅃ	bb	ㅍ	p
/m͊/ ← /m/		/pʰ/ ← /b/					/꜒p/		/꜓pʰ/
ㄴ	n	ㄷ	d				ㄸ	dd	ㅌ	t
/n͊/ ← /n/		/tʰ/ ← /d/					/꜒t/		/꜓tʰ/
ㄷ/ㄹ	r	ㅈ	j				ㅉ	jj	ㅊ	c
		/t͡ɕʰ/ ← /d͡ʑ/					/꜒t͡ɕ/		/꜓t͡ɕʰ/
ㄹ	l	ㅅ	s		ㅅ/∅	z	ㅆ	ss	ㅎ	x
/l/ɾ/[1]		/sʰ/ɕʰ/[2]					/꜒s/		/x/ç/ɸ/h/[3] ⇦ /ʱ/
ㆁ	ng	ㄱ	q				ㄲ	qq	ㅋ	k
/ŋ/		/kʰ/ ← /g/					/꜒k/		/꜓kʰ/

Footnotes

[1]

⟨l⟩ strengthens to /ɾ/ between two vowels.

[2]

⟨s⟩ palatalizes as /ɕʰ/ when in front of ⟨i⟩ or ⟨y⟩.

[3]

⟨x⟩ palatalizes as /ç/ when followed by vowel with ⟨i⟩ or ⟨y⟩. Assimilates to /ɸ/ when in front of ⟨wu⟩. Otherwise aspirates to /h/ unless directly in front of ⟨u⟩.

Note

• A ← B : B gets full or weakened (aspirated/unvoiced) as A if it’s the first letter of the phonetic word.

• A ⇦ B: B gets aspirated as A if no preceding consonant.

• For syllabic coda, liquids as pronounced as is but the rest of the consonants are pronounced as either /p̚/, /t̚/. or /k̚/.

• Note how the sounds of consonants differ when in the initial, medial, and final position of a word, and in front of certain vowels.

  • b/p, d/t, q/k, j/c are distinguishable in the word-initial position because ⟨b⟩ is pronounced with a low pitch and ⟨p⟩ is pronounced with a high pitch.

  • b/p, d/t, q/k, j/c are distinguishable in the word-medial position because ⟨b⟩ is voiced and ⟨p⟩ is voiceless, like in English and Japanese.

  • b/bb/p, d/dd/t/j/jj/c/s/ss, q/qq/k are not distinguishable in the word-final position.

• ⟨l⟩ may be pronounced in two ways depending on the position.

  • Word-initial ⟨l⟩ is pronounced as a light ⟨l⟩, like the word-initial ⟨l⟩ in English. But it is okay to pronouce it as a flap, like the word-medial ⟨t⟩ in General American (e.g. better).

  • Word-medial ⟨ll⟩ before ⟨a⟩ or ⟨e⟩ is pronounced as ⟨lu⟩, before a vowel is pronounced as double light ls ⟨ll⟩, like the word-initial ⟨l⟩ in English. Else, word-medial ⟨l⟩ is prounced as a flap, like the word-medial ⟨t⟩ in General American (e.g. better).

    • Word-medial ⟨lll⟩ is pronounced as <lu> in front of a consonant and as ⟨lul⟩ in front of ⟨e⟩. Else, word-medial ⟨ll⟩ before a consonant is pronounced as <lu>. In these cases, it is written as pronounced instead.

  • Word-final ⟨l⟩ sounds like a light ⟨l⟩, like the word-initial ⟨l⟩ in English.

• s and ss sound different and are pronounced differently, but they are very similar.

  • Put the back of your hand a palm away from your mouth. You shouldn’t feel much air coming out of your mouth when you pronounce ss, like when you pronounce the English Esssssss.

  • On the contrary, you have to be able to feel the air coming out of your mouth when you pronounce the s sound.

• ⟨ㅇ⟩ in modern use is actually a combination of two older letters that look very similar. ⟨ㅇ⟩ is a placeholder that is only used word-initially. ⟨ㆁ⟩ is the /ng/ sound only appearing at word-finals. Now you use ⟨ㅇ⟩ for both.

The pitch distinguishes the first consonant of a phonetic word, as voiced consonants are devoiced when they’re there. The first syllable starting with a voiced or devoiced letter is pronounced with a low pitch. Otherwise, it’s high. Phonemically voiceless consonants have higher pitches.

Low Register (Default: ꜕)		High Register
if the first letter of the phonetic word is a
Basic Consonant	ㅂㄷㅈㄱ	Voiceless (꜒)	ㅃㄸㅉㄲㅆ
Liquid	ㅁㄴㄹ
Vowel	ㅇ	Voiceless aspirated (꜓)	ㅍㅌㅊㅋ (ㅅ)
Glide	ㅇ

Learn how to read

Click on the characters on the tables above to listen to the Korean pronunciations of Hangul.

The following format is used to illustrate the pronunciations of consonants.

/ba bbei bibubbe/

/bwa bbwei bwibwubbebwo/

/bya bbyei byibyubbyebyo/

Letters (morphophonemes) ⟨v⟩, ⟨z⟩, and ⟨o⟩ are absolutely netralized: that is, they are always pronounced like other phonemes or not pronounced.

Letters ⟨l⟩ and ⟨r⟩ are pronounced in a complex pattern.

They are written in Korean how they are pronounced, on the contrary to how Korean is written usually (with morphophonemes).

They are pronounced as below.

\[\begin{split}\begin{aligned} /\!\!/v/\!\!/ &\rightarrow \begin{cases} /w/,&\text{ if vowel follows }\\ /b/ &\text{ otherwise } \end{cases} \\ /\!\!/r/\!\!/ &\rightarrow \begin{cases} /r/,&\text{ if vowel follows }\\ /d/ &\text{ otherwise } \end{cases} \\ /\!\!/l/\!\!/ &\rightarrow \begin{cases} /\!\!/ll/\!\!/,&\text{ if ⟨l⟩ follows }\\ /r/,&\text{ else if vowel follows }\\ /l/ &\text{ otherwise } \end{cases} \\ /\!\!/ll/\!\!/ &\rightarrow \begin{cases} /\!\!/lll/\!\!/,&\text{ if ⟨l⟩ follows }\\ /\!\!/lu/\!\!/,&\text{ else if ⟨a⟩ or ⟨e⟩ follows }\\ /ll/ &\text{ otherwise } \end{cases} \\ /\!\!/lll/\!\!/ &\rightarrow \begin{cases} /\!\!/lul/\!\!/,&\text{ if ⟨e⟩ follows }\\ /\!\!/lu/\!\!/ &\text{ otherwise } \end{cases} \\ /\!\!/z/\!\!/ &\rightarrow \begin{cases} /\varnothing/,&\text{ if vowel follows }\\ /s/ &\text{ otherwise } \end{cases} \\ /\!\!/o/\!\!/ &\rightarrow /\varnothing/ \end{aligned}\end{split}\]